“Well,” remarked the driver slowly as he halted the team and got out to repair the broken brake, “I don’t want a thing like that to happen again. I wanted to help you, Mabel, but I didn’t dare leave the horses.”
“I—I was helped in time,” answered the girl with a little blush.
“Guess we’ll wait for the freight wagon,” went on Tanker Ike. “Then I’ll fix things up and we’ll go on. There’s no more danger, though. We’re over the worst part of the road.”
Mexican Pete, who drove the freighter, soon came up, he having had no mishap on the trip down. The three men soon mended the broken brake, and the journey was resumed. That night they arrived at the stage station, which marked the beginning of the two days’ trip over the desert. It was here that Mr. Pierce and his daughter were to leave the boys, to go on a different route.
“Now don’t you young fellows forget to come to Pryor’s Gap if you get a chance,” commanded Mr. Pierce. “My daughter and I will be there in a few weeks, after I do a little more visiting. You can get there from where you are going to hunt without crossing this desert, though it’s rather a long, roundabout way. But I hope I’ll see you again.”
“Yes, try to come,” added Mabel as she shook hands with the boys, Jack last of all.
Was it fancy, or did she leave her hand in his a little longer than was absolutely necessary? I rather think she did, or perhaps Jack held it.
“I hope you’ll come to see me—I mean us,” she said.
“I’ll come,” was Jack’s answer.
Mr. Pierce and his pretty daughter went to stay with a friend that night, while the boys, Tanker Ike and Mexican Pete put up at the stage hotel.